Love, Maybe
by Firefly95
Summary: TFA: three new femmes come to Earth...what good could possibly come out of this? Bumblebee X Firefly, Bulkhead X Silver Angel, Prowl X Prowess.Rated T for future themes. Chapter 8: Listen to Me! P. 2
1. The Arrival

Love (maybe)

**Love (maybe)**

Okay, this is my firs**t **fanfic so be nice, and a little constructive criticism is appreciated, but don't be too harsh

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers animated (Dang!), but I do own Firefly, Silver Angel, and Prowess, they belong to me so…. YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM!! Sorry 'bout that, anyways, you no sue, and I give you cookie! 

Chapter 1: The Arrival

Prowess stared out the window of the Elite Guard ship silently, only half listening to Firefly and Silver Angel's heated discussion of what Earth and its inhabitants may be like, and speculated whether or not these 'Earthlings' were very friendly. They had all heard Sentinel's stories of slime-spewing organics, but the three femmes hardly thought they were true, "_Humph, Slime-spewing Organics…Get Serious!_" Prowess thought shaking her head. Sentinel might have a CPU, but it didn't mean he used it.

She turned her attention back to her two friends, who were now discussing the 5 mechs that were stationed on the planet. They had crashed on the planet 50 stellar cycles ago and were supposedly the planets' protectors now. From what she could tell from their bios, they were space bridge engineers, nothing real special, but Jazz told them that they weren't bad guys and they had more experience fighting decepticons than half the Elite Guard.

That last bit had interested her quite a bit so she had done some research to see where they had fought decepticons. She learned that these five had come into possession of the Allspark during a routine space bridge inspection. Consequently, a group of decepticons, who had picked up on the Allspark's energy, attacked their ship. After that, the five crashed on Earth and the decepticons followed. On top of all this, during the Elite Guard's visit to Earth, they learned that the Allspark had been destroyed. "_No, _Prowess corrected herself, _dispersed."_ Then, Ultra Magnus had instructed the 5 Autobots to stay on Earth and collect the Allspark fragments while monitoring the decepticon activity.

"_Well, _Prowess thought, _these guys have had some pretty bad luck._" The Autobot femme decided she might as well get some recharge before they got to earth, since her sensors told her that it would still be a couple solar cycles before they reached the small planet, and with that she drifted into recharge listening to the sounds of her friends quietly talking.

Back at the Autobot base

Optimus Prime felt a little shocked when Ultra Magnus informed him that three young Elite Guard soldiers would soon be coming to Earth to gain experience in crime fighting. After he got over the initial shock, he tried to ask the three soldiers' names, but Ultra Magnus cut him off, saying he would find out soon enough and they would arrive in three solar cycles, or three days.

He sat there a bit dumbfound, three young guardsmen? Coming to Earth? To help fight Earth crime alongside him and his crew? Well _this _was certainly new, and what was he going to tell the others?

Sighing, he put his finger to his helm and pressed the call button. **"Um, Ratchet?" **

"**Yea, Prime?" **Ratchet answered.

"**Could you and the rest of the crew come to the common room? There is something I must tell you…"** Prime said hesitantly.

"**Sure thing, is it very important?" **Ratchet asked.

"**Kinda…" **Prime answered. Dropping his hand to his side he sighed, "This is going to be very interesting…."

"So let me get this straight," Bumblebee said, "three Elite Guardsmen are coming to Earth?!"

"It would appear so." Optimus said

"Why?!" The little yellow bot exclaimed.

"Ultra Magnus didn't provide me with many details I'm afraid." Optimus answered.

"Well, I believe we have two options," Ratchet said, "We could sit here and argue about it, _OR_ we could get our afts in gear and get ready for their arrival!"

"I agree," Optimus said, "bickering won't stop them from coming so we had better just roll with it."

The other Autobots nodded in agreement and set to work making preparations for the new arrivals.

Back on the Elite Guard ship

"_Only half a solar cycle left until we get to this planet "Earth"_, Firefly thought attempting to stretch in the cramped confines of the relatively small ship. She wasn't claustrophobic but 5 solar cycles in a ship made to accommodate two not three bots was enough to make anyone get a little touchy about their own personal space.

She glanced at the recharging forms of her two best friends to make sure she hadn't disturbed them; she knew how grouchy Prowess was when she was woken up mid-recharge.

"_Nope," _she observed, "_still rechargin'."_

She found herself again wondering what the five mechs on Earth were like, she understood that three were around her and her friends' ages, one was the age of her older brother, Darkstar, and the fifth was the age of her father's father. She wondered what the three her age looked like, were they cute, and if they were, did they have girlfriends?

She sighed to herself, back on Cybertron; she didn't have many boyfriends due to her fiercely over-protective older brother. Not that she got to many offers anyway, all the mechs that liked her were too afraid of Darkstar to make a move on her, but, then again, if she had been involved with them, she might not would have made it into the Elite Guard. She smiled at the thought, yea, that was a much better way to think of it….

"_**ETA until landing, one megacycle," **_The ship's computer said, _**"ready yourselves for landing"**_

"FINALLY!!" Firefly exclaimed loudly, forgetting where she was. In the process she woke up her friends, and by the time she realized what she had done, her friends were both giving her death glares for waking them.

"Oops…" She said quietly.

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!" Prowess exclaimed.

"We're about to land…" She said, but the words were hardly out of her mouth when the other 2 femmes started to fumble with their landing restraints in the prospect of finally landing and getting out of their tiny ship.

Back at the Autobot Base

Bumblebee was nervous about the new arrivals. He didn't know anything about them and what if they ended up being glitch-detailed jerks like Sentinel Prime, but they could also be really nice guys like Jazz…well, he really didn't want to think about that right now, they were going to be arriving shortly, in less than half a megacycle, so he needed to have his CPU on task.

"Prowl, you sure this is where they're supposed to land? Bumblebee asked.

"Yes Bumblebee, I calculated their landing site several times, I'm sure this is where they're supposed to land!" Prowl said impatiently. This was the sixth time in the last minute that Bumblebee had asked that same question. As you can imagine it got very annoying after a while.

"Well, if this is where they're gonna land, shouldn't we see their ship by now?" Bumblebee exclaimed.

Optimus was about to answer him when they saw the red fireball coming through the clouds over their heads.

Bumblebee was glad Optimus had told Captain Fanzone that they were expecting new arrivals and not to be alarmed if he saw the ship. Of course Fanzone had muttered something like, "That's all we need, MORE machines." But he had agreed that it was best if he let the Autobots handle this one. He could be a nice guy when he wanted to, but 'Bee didn't get why he hated machines so much.

After what seemed like an eternity, the ship finally touched down, but the Autobots were SOOO unprepared for the surprise that awaited them when the door opened……

Back on the Elite Guard ship

Well, it wasn't one of the smoothest landings Silver Angel had endured, and being a jet, she experienced a lot of landings, but at least they hadn't crashed.

Standing up, she followed Firefly down the narrow hallway toward the exit, stumbling slightly. Prowess keyed in the code for it to open and waited patiently for the door to slide open and with Firefly in the lead (as usual) Angel second, and Prowess last, they stepped out.

Outside the Elite Guard ship

Prowl watched as the dust from the opening door cleared, and what he saw next surprised him so much it took all of his willpower to keep himself from gasping in surprise, standing in the doorway of the Elite Guard ship, were three beautiful _femmes!! _They all looked very different from one another, but they were all beautiful. The one in the lead was bright purple and silver, mid height, and of slender build. She also had wing-like structures on her back with a wheel at the base of each 'wing', Prowl knew these 'wings' weren't for flying because they were much too small and flimsy looking. The one right behind her was completely silver, and was taller and bulkier. The last one was the shortest, a little shorter than the purple and silver one (who is a little taller than Bumblebee), was pale pink and gray, and was the slimmest and sleekest. He also noticed she had a retractable visor.

"_Maybe she's a Cyber Ninja_." Prowl thought hopefully, it would be nice to have someone like him around.

He heard the others gasp and saw their jaws dropping in surprise; this obviously shocked them as much as it shocked him. Then Bumblebee summed up everyone's thoughts with his next comment, "_You're the three Elite Guardsmen that are going to be staying with us?!_" The yellow bot exclaimed.

The purple and silver one in the lead smiled a huge smile, "Yup."

The completely silver one to her right mirrored the first one's smile. "Unless you have a problem with that, 'cuz if you do we can leave…" The second one said.

All five of the male Autobots shook their heads vigorously and all said "no" quickly.

"Good." The purple and silver one said, "Now that that is settled, my name is Firefly, This is Silver Angel," she said pointing to the silver one who had spoken earlier, "and that stiff back there is Prowess." Firefly said smiling and pointing to the pale pink and gray femme who had hung back a little.

The one named Prowess gave Firefly a death glare and said, "Now that Firefly has so _kindly_ introduced us,tell us what your names are."

Optimus spoke up, "I'm Optimus Prime, and this is Ratchet, that is Bulkhead, he's Prowl, and this is Bumblebee." He was still a bit shocked that the 3 guardsmen he would be commanding were femmes.

"Nice to meet ya," Firefly said, holding out her hand for them to shake. They all took turns shaking her hand, but when Bumblebee took it, they lingered a bit longer holding hands until 'Bee pulled away, his faceplates warming.

Sensing Firefly's slight embarrassment, Silver Angel quickly took up where the purple and silver femme left off and shook everyone's hand, giving Firefly a chance to regain her composure.

The five mechs looked at Prowess kind of expectantly, but the pink and gray femme just stared at them. "Um, don't take it personally, she doesn't really trust anyone." Firefly interjected.

"A wise policy I suppose." Prowl said, earning a small smile from Prowess.

"Ok," Optimus said "now that we are all acquainted with one another, let's get you ladies some alt modes, and get you settled into your new rooms at the base."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Silver Angel said and started to take a step forward, but tripped over herself and tumbled down the ramp and landed in a heap at the bottom.

Bulkhead rushed forward to help her, and she took his hand graciously, thankful for the help, while Firefly and Bumblebee doubled over laughing.

"Well, that was graceful!" Firefly exclaimed when she finally calmed down.

"No Kidding." Angel said glaring at the smaller femme, while Prowess smirked in amusement at her two friends. _"No matter where we are some things never change."_


	2. Alt modes and other Fun Stuff

Chapter 2: Alt modes and other fun stuff

Me: Ok, here's chapter 2, ok I got stuck in the middle of this one so it's a miracle it got typed! Anyway thanks for the review The Only Person Who Loves Akito, it helped my confidence a lot! Anyway, on with the story, Firefly, my girl, can you read the nice people the disclaimer?

Silver Angel: Hey! Why does she get to?

Me: Oh!! Don't give me that wounded puppy dog look; you can do it next time!

Silver Angel: (Sniffle) ok.

Firefly: Ugh, you are such a drama queen! Anyway Firefly95 doesn't own Transformers Animated, just Firefly, Silver Angel, and Prowess, so you can't have them.

Chapter 2: Alt modes and other fun stuff

The three femmes had decided to get their alt modes before going to the base to get settled, because it was quite a long walk. On the way to the highway to get alt modes, Silver Angel said she wouldn't find her alt mode on a road, mystified, Optimus watched as a set of wings similar to the Decepticon Starscream's, popped out of her back and she took off into the air. He heard several gasps and saw Firefly smirking as he turned to Ratchet, "I thought Autobots couldn't fly!" He said

"Most can't," Ratchet began "but, yes, there are a few who have the means to, but they are pretty rare."

Suddenly Optimus remembered something, "Oh! Like the ArielBots?"

Ratchet nodded, "She might be the daughter of an Arielbot."

Optimus sighed, "right now, I wouldn't be surprised" and went back to watching her loop through the sky. For someone so clumsy on the ground, she was very graceful in the sky.

When she landed, Optimus said, "I take it you'll need a vehicle mode that flies?" She nodded in answer and Optimus said, "Very well, I'm going to contact Captain Fanzone and inform him of our current situation and request permission for one of us to take Silver Angel to the landing strip on the other side of town."

Bulkhead perked up and said, "Uh, Boss bot? I'll take Silver Angel to the landing strip, um, that is, if she wants me to, I mean-" Angel cut him off by putting a hand on his huge arm and saying "I would love for you to escort me, Bulkhead, if it's ok with Optimus."

Optimus nodded and Bumblebee snickered while Firefly "Wooed", Prowl and Prowess's lip components lifted at the edges in the slightest hints of smiles, while Ratchet just sighed and muttered, "Young bots."

While Optimus got in touch with Captain Fanzone, Firefly, Prowess, Bumblebee, and Prowl approached a spot beside the highway where they could see everything and everyone on the road without anyone seeing them.

They settled down and started waiting. They hadn't been there long when a sleek sports car followed by a motor cycle similar to Prowl's vehicle mode zipped by and Firefly squealed in delight at the car and scanned it as it went by, while Prowess much more calmly scanned the motor cycle.

As the two examined their new paintjob patterns and found their new alt modes to their liking, Optimus received permission for Angel and Bulkhead to go to the landing strip so she could pick her new vehicle mode and they soon headed out with Bulkhead driving and Silver Angel flying over him.

Optimus watched the two until he could no longer see them, then redirected his attention to Bumblebee and Firefly, who were already betting who was faster. He shook his head, "Alright, Autobots! Transform and roll out!" he exclaimed and transformed

Firefly and Bumblebee forgot their argument and obeyed instantly, transforming into their vehicle modes along with the others, and followed Optimus to the old automobile manufacturing plant on the edge of town.

Back with Bulkhead and Silver Angel

Bulkhead tried not to think about the femme flying over him, because for some reason whenever he talked to her or even stood near her, he felt weak in his knees and didn't know what to say. He had felt himself heat up when she touched him, but it wasn't uncomfortable, in fact, he rather liked it.

He remembered feeling this way about a femme before, but it had been a long time ago and she hadn't been interested. He hoped this relationship would turn out differently….

Silver Angel tried to keep her attention off the mech below her and on the air space in front of her, but ended up failing miserably. Thankfully though, the skies were clear of any other aircrafts, so she wasn't worried about crashes or anything.

She felt a little confused though, what made her spark flutter when she looked at him or touched him? After all, he wasn't real impressive to look at, she had dated more handsome mechs, but none of them had ever made her feel like this.

She remembered when he had offered to accompany her to the air strip to help her choose her new alt mode; he had stuttered and blushed a bit. Angel smiled to herself; he had been so cute and sweet.

Actually his gentleness had surprised her when he had helped her up when she had tripped; truthfully she had been more surprised that he had actually offered in the first place. Gentle bots were hard to come by nowadays on Cybertron. She smiled; maybe…if she got to know him…he could actually turn into more than just a friend. From what she could tell he was sweet, gentle, and best of all, _not _a jerk.

Silver Angel executed a quick barrel roll; maybe this trip could be more productive than she first anticipated.

Bulkhead was still thinking when they arrived at the Detroit air strip, he jerked himself out of his thoughts and transformed.

"Uh, Silver Angel?" He said hesitantly.

Angel landed beside him gracefully, "Oh, you can just call me Angel. What is it?" She asked, smiling.

"I was just telling you we're here…Angel." He said a bit shyly.

"Oh, ok, I'll go see if there's one I like then I'll come see what you think, so stay here for a few cycles." She said


	3. New Rooms

Chapter 3, yaaaay

**Chapter 3, yaaaay!! Alright I should have got this done sooner, but school started, so I've been kinda busy. Any way thanks ****'HURRICANE' Hannah**** and ****09Camarochick**** for the reviews!**

**Ugh, I hate saying this buuut, Firefly95 doesn't own Transformers Animated, just Firefly, Silver Angel, Prowess, and DJ who is mentioned in the story. Ok with that over with, lets get on to the story!**

**Chapter 3: New Rooms**

With Optimus leading, the group of Autobots soon arrived outside some kind of old building. They all transformed and Optimus opened the door and stood to the side saying as the femmes passed, "Well, here we are, I know it's not much, but it's the best we can do right now."

Firefly smiled, "I kind of like it, it's got a homey sort of feel to it, ya know?" She said while walking over to the couch and casually sitting on the arm of it. "It's definitely a break from all the high techiness of Cybertron."

Ratchet grunted, while Optimus smiled slightly, "I'm glad you like it, we've already prepared three rooms, so you can go take your pick. Bumblebee, Prowl, Can you take these ladies to choose their rooms?

The two nodded and Prowl motioned a bit awkwardly for the two to follow them down the long hallway leading to the Autobot's quarters.

Firefly, being the talkative little bot she was, struck up a conversation with Bumblebee. "So," she began, "Are there any places around here where we can go racing sometime?"

"Slag yeah!" Bumblebee exclaimed excitedly, none of the others around here liked to race, so an opportunity like this was just too good to pass up. "When Sari gets here I'll get her to show you our favorite race track!"

Firefly quirked an optic ridge, "Who or what is a 'Sari'? She asked confused.

"She is our little human guide for this planet." Prowl explained, "You'll probably meet her soon."

Firefly was about to say more, but didn't get the chance because they had already arrived at their destination, a hallway with many rooms on either side.

"Sooo, which ones are ours again?" The young femme asked.

"These three on the left here," Prowl said, "You can chose which one fits your needs the best."

Prowess walked forward, stepping carefully around Prowl as she did so and nudged Firefly forward, "Lets go, we can talk more later," she dipped her head slightly to the two mechs and walked off pushing Firefly along, with the purple femme yelling, "See ya later!"

"Wow," Bumblebee said, "That Prowess sure ain't real talkative, is she?"

Prowl rolled his optics, "Just because someone doesn't enjoy wasting their energy talking like you do, it doesn't mean they're not friendly."

"Geez, chill! I didn't know you liked her! Sorry!" The little yellow bot said putting his hands up in the air in surrender.

Bumblebee's last comment caught him slightly off guard, "What are you talking about?!" He exclaimed, "I don't _like _her! Prowl hurriedly turned around and started walking away to hide the blush creeping up his cheeks.

"Riiight," Bumblebee said sarcastically, "I'm sure the way you've been staring at her aft since she got here is just to find out whether or not she owns a robokitty."

Prowl stopped for a moment to turn to his comrade, "You walk a fine line between bravery and stupidity, Bumblebee." He said, and muttered to himself, "I wasn't staring at her aft the _whole_ time."

Bumblebee snickered when he just barely caught the last part, "That's what you think."

Prowess sighed; Firefly was taking _forever _to choose a room. "My room has to reflect my personality, when others walk into it they have to be able to tell what kind of 'bot lives in it."

Prowess arched an optic ridge, "And, other than me and Angel, who exactly _are _you going to let into your room? She grumbled.

Firefly gave her friend a withering look, "Funny. Well for starters, Bumblebee seems pretty cool, anyway why do you care?"

Prowess tensed at the smart remark, "Fire, why _wouldn't _I care? You're one of my best friends."

Firefly paused, something like that coming from Prowess, who always seemed so passive and uncaring, was rare. "I'm sorry Prowy, but just because you don't trust mechs, don't mean I can't."

Prowess let out a low hiss of anger, "I _told _you I never wanted to talk about that ever again!" she snapped.

Despite Prowess slight aggression, Firefly didn't back down. This was how it always went; Firefly brought up Prowess' sad past, Prowess got angry and defensive and refused to talk about it, Angel got in between the two, and Prowess stalked off to do whatever ninjas did when they were angry. "Prowess," she began, "You know the longer you go without talking about what happened, the more it will haunt you and change you even more! She yelled not caring if anyone heard her. Prowess needed to hear this and Angel wasn't here to stop her.

Prowess glared at her friend, "its ancient history! Gone and over! I already told you I _DON'T _want to talk about it and you can't make me!" She yelled. "If you cared about me at _ALL _would respect my reasons about not wanting to talk about my past!"

The anger in Firefly's optics disappeared and she said quietly, "Prowy, I _do _care about you, you and Angel. You're like the sisters I never had, and I just don't want you to die alone just because you think all mechs are the same. Because, they're not, sure some are real jerks like Sentinel, but some are really sweet and cool like Jazz and DJ. If you just gave yourself a chance to love and be happy again, you might find you like it." She said, "These are good 'bots here and I feel sure that none of them are like those who hurt and broke you."

There was true concern in Firefly's optics and Prowess couldn't take anymore, she had to get away. Fire, I just can't do that right now, maybe sometime in the future, but I…I just _can't._ She whispered as she walked out the door to the room at the far end of the hall to meditate and just _forget._


	4. Missing!

Chapter 4: Missing!

**Hey it's Firefly95 with the next chapter of Love, Maybe. I have been throwing around ideas for this chapter for a while, which may be why I didn't do so well on that math quiz, oopsies. I'm not sure exactly how long I'm going to make Love, Maybe, but I'm definitely going to try to keep it under 10 chapters, I guess.**

**Whoa, this chapter is WAAAAY over due! I should have finished it about a month ago, but my teachers must all have thought it would be funny to give me a whole crapload of homework every day!**

**Disclaimer: in case you haven't figured it out, I am not rich and I don't own Transformers Animated, but I do own, unfortunately, a lot of unfinished homework at the moment, as well as my OCs Firefly, Silver Angel, and Prowess.**

When Silver Angel walked into the Earth stationed Autobot's base with Bulkhead close behind her, she could immediately sense something was wrong.

She looked around not really seeing anything that seemed off, but knew better than to just wave the feeling off, thinking she was just nervous about being in a new place. After all, she had lived nearly her whole life with a certain purple and silver femme whose idea of funny was replacing all of the cleaning fluid in the wash racks with an unappealing shade of pink paint. She had long since learned to trust her instincts when it came to Fire.

She smiled in a bemused way, as unpredictable as Firefly tended to be, she wouldn't have her any other way.

"What's wrong?" Bulkhead asked, seeing the way the silver femme stopped so abruptly.

Silver Angel glanced at him, getting a warm, fuzzy feeling at the truly concerned look on his face. _Primus _he was cute when he looked at her like that! "Oh, nothing, I just got a strange sensation when I walked in." Seeing the confused look on his face, she quickly changed the subject. "So, where is my room?"

Bulkhead smiled brightly at her and taking her hand without noticing he had done so He started to lead her in the direction of her room, when realization of the fact that he was holding her hand hit him. Blushing madly, he released her hand, muttering an embarrassed "sorry."

She smiled gently and retook his hand in hers, "Oh, I don't mind, I kind of like it."

His faceplates became hot as she held his hand tightly. "Your room is at the end of this hallway here."

He started to lead her down it when she put her hand on his huge arm. "It's ok; I think I've got it from here." She gave him one last smile before heading down the hallway toward the rooms at the end of the hall he had mentioned.

Despite her brief moment with Bulkhead, the nagging feeling in her spark that something was wrong still hadn't gone away, which worried her quite a bit.

She arrived at the end of the hallway just in time to see Firefly leave one room and head purposefully toward the room that was the furthest toward the end. She could feel Firefly's frustration coming off of her in waves and could see her doorwings twitching slightly, the way they did after a certain type of argument with Prowess. _"Oh no, she DIDN'T" _Angel thought angrily, she left the two alone for what? Three megacycles, and Firefly had managed to start that again! _Right_ after they arrived in a new place too!

Growling softly, she walked faster and caught Firefly by the arm, and spun the other femme around to face her. "You brought it up again, didn't you?" she demanded.

Surprise flickered through Firefly's sapphire optics for a nano-klik, before her optics began blazing again. "Butt out of it for once in your life Angel!" Firefly snapped.

Silver Angel flinched slightly, Firefly was well known for her sharp glossa, but that was just plain _mean_! "I wouldn't have to butt into it if you would stop bringing it up! Its obvious Prowess doesn't want to talk about her past! So why don't you just _drop _it!" She growled.

Firefly's optics burned with fury, "_You_ need to stop trying to baby Prowess! She's a big girl and doesn't need anyone to fight her battles for her!" Firefly's voice quieted a bit "You can't protect her from her past Angel, no matter how much you want to." Taking a step toward Angel, she continued, "You know that the longer she keeps it bottled up, the more distrustful she's bound to become."

Silver Angel sighed, she knew Firefly was right. She knew she was trying to protect Prowess from something she simply couldn't, but she just didn't want to see Prowess hurt anymore, the little femme had been through enough as it was. Firefly was also right about Prowess keeping all her feelings inside; it would be like continuing to fill an already full energon cube with energon. It some point, it would have to break, or worse, explode.

Reluctantly, she said, "You're right; she has to let it out before it really hurts her."

Firefly smiled softly, "Thanks Angel, I promise I'll try to make it as painless as possible." With that, she started toward Prowess's room again, leaving Angel to stare after her, wondering if this really was the right thing to do.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned to see Optimus looking at her with a worried expression. "We heard shouting, is everything ok?"

She smiled gently, "I think so, we just had a small disagreement."

The corners of Optimus lip components twitched slightly in a smile. "A rather loud one, hm?"

She started to say something else to the Autobot leader when she heard Firefly's panicky shout, "ANGEL! SHE'S GONE!"

Angel's optics widened and she turned to Optimus to find him with the same expression. Turning back to Firefly, who was in full panic mode, she said, "Are you sure? Maybe she is just hiding in there."

Firefly shook her head, "No, I gave her room a complete scan, her energy signature was definitely not there."

Angel turned to Optimus, who said, "I'll alert the others."

He turned and ran to the common room with the two femmes hot on his heels.

"Autobots!" He commanded, "We have a missing femme."

The others turned and looked at him in a mixture of shock, surprise, and skepticism.

"Are you completely sure?" Ratchet asked narrowing his optics

Firefly nodded vigorously, "I gave her room a complete scan. She is definitely not there."

As the others asked her questions, Prowl silently pondered to himself; with him meditating so close to the main exit, there was absolutely no way she had gotten past him. After all, if he could hear Bulkhead shift positions, or Ratchet's joints creak, or even Bumblebee scratch his cheek, he could definitely hear a femme try to sneak past him. The only other exit he knew of was the one in his room, and he doubted she knew about that one.

That femme was still in this base, most likely, even more likely, still in her room. Something Firefly had undoubtedly forgotten was that most all cyber ninjas that finished their training were updated with an energy signature scrambler, and the femme ninja had used that to give her friend the slip. Why, he had no idea, but he intended to find out, and to do that, he needed the others out of the base.

"What do you think Prowl?" He heard Optimus ask.

Clearing his throat, he asked, "Sir?"

Optimus repeated, "What do you think we should do?" Prowl could have smiled! This was perfect!

"I think you should probably fan out and scan the area around the base, she can't have gone far." He said, and then added quickly, "I can stay here and monitor Teletraan-1 to see if it picks up anything."

Optimus nodded, "Good thinking Prowl." Then turning to the others he commanded, "You know the plan Autobots, now, roll out and let's find that femme!"

**Sorry, I know this is pretty short, but I had to cut it in half because it was REALLY long and I'm going to upload the next half tomorrow maybe.**

**This chapter and the next chapter (since they kinda go together) are dedicated to my best buddy and fellow author, Trackster. Seriously people, she rocks!**


	5. Listen to Me, part 1

**Okayy, part 1 of ****Listen to Me!**** done, I was afraid this would get too long, so I cut it in half, and I felt like I was starting to ignore this story, so I came to a place where I could stop without it sounding completely messed up!**

**I'm SOO sorry these take so long to post! I am suffering from writer's block as well as too much homework.**

**In this chapter you get to see how Prowess met Firefly and Silver Angel, see some of her past, and get a hint about what another certain cyber-ninja thinks of one of our main femmes!**

**Warnings:**** none**

**Disclaimer:**** you ever notice how it takes longer to type, 'I don't own Transformers, Hasbro owns it' than it does to type, 'I own Transformers'? Those dang lawyers really want us to get our exercise!**

**3 Firefly95**

Chapter 5: Listen to Me!

He watched for a moment to make sure they were really gone, then turned and walked briskly to Teletraan-1. He knew he would be in deep trouble if the Decepticons managed to infiltrate the base while he talked to Prowess, so he set the computer to alert him of any disturbances or problems.

More slowly, he walked toward the room Prowess had claimed as hers. Hesitating only a moment he pressed the green button that opened the door. It quietly swished open and he stepped silently stepped inside, surveying his surroundings and looking for shadows in which a sneaky Cyber ninja femme might hide.

Right away he knew that despite the femme's small size, there was absolutely no where to hide in here, and that meant there was only one more place she could be…on the ceiling.

His head snapped up just in time to see a shimmer-like movement on the ceiling overhead. _"Chameleon affect, impressive." _He thought. Quietly, as not to startle her, he called out, "Please Prowess, I only wish to talk to you."

No answer, well, he sort of expected that, so sitting cross-legged on the floor he said patiently, "Care to explain why you tricked your friends into believing you had left the base? They're very worried you know…" Again, she said nothing.

"I promise, I won't do anything, I just want to talk." He thought for a moment she wouldn't answer, but then a soft reply came. "The last time a mech told me that, I ended up getting hurt, both physically and figuratively."

His optics widened for a moment before he said, "I promise I won't do anything, I just want to talk." Thinking quickly he added, "You don't even have to come out, please, just talk to me."

For a nerve-racking moment, he thought she would refuse and tell him to leave, but she let out a sigh tainted with sorrow and pain and said, "Fine, but if I don't like where this conversation heads, you leave as soon as I say so, no protests."

He nodded; he could deal with those conditions.

"Oh, and one more thing," she said, "For every question you ask, I get to ask one." He quirked an optic ridge, but simply said, "Fair enough."

He took her silence as his cue to ask the first question, "Why did you trick your friends into thinking you left the base?"

He heard her shift slightly, and she answered, "I needed to be alone and I never would have been with Firefly here. I love her like a sister, but she doesn't know when enough is truly enough."

Prowl nodded, he could understand that, but is still didn't justify her actions completely. "You do realize you have frightened them very much with your disappearing act."

"I did not anticipate such a bad reaction from Firefly." She said softly. "I assure you I will apologize to Firefly and Silver Angel as well as the rest of your team as soon as they return."

"I know you will." He said, then hesitantly added, "Your turn to ask a question."

She was silent for a moment and Prowl wondered if she had heard him until she said, "How did you know I was still here?"

He smiled slightly; it was an easy question, "Simple, I was meditating near the only exit-"

Prowess interrupted him, "Not true, there is another exit in your quarters."

Bewildered, Prowl asked "How did you know about that?"

"The door to your quarters was open when you were walking us down the hall." She said bluntly.

Prowl was silent for a moment, she was obviously more attentative to her surroundings than he had anticipated. "Impressive observation, but as I was saying, I was meditating next to the front exit, and I would have easily heard someone trying to sneak past me and I doubted you knew about the second exit, much less the security code that unlocks my door."

"Hmm," She murmured thoughtfully. "your turn."

"Why are you so wary of me?" He asked, it had been a question he had been deeply contemplating during his meditation and hadn't really come up with a logical reason.

He jumped slightly in surprise as she suddenly appeared on the ceiling and flipped down, making her way almost soundlessly over to him. He scrutinized her face in order to get some kind of clue as to what emotions she was feeling, but her visor obstructed his view of her optics and her mouth was fixed in a straight line.

"It's not you specifically, I'm wary of all mechs." She said hesitantly, and then shook her helm, "It's a long story."

"I'm ready to listen." He said leaning back against the wall to get more comfortable.

She seemed undecided and for a nano-klik, he thought she would ask him to get out, but instead she sat down in front of him and for the first time, he realized how beautiful she really was. Her face was somewhat heart-shaped, with round, supple cheeks and full lips. Her face was dark gray and her helm was pale pink with a dark gray stripe running from her forehead to the back of her helm, resembling a motorcycle helmet.

He jerked himself from his admiring when she took a deep breath and said. "Before I tell you this, you must promise to never breathe a word of it to anyone else."

Prowl nodded briskly, but wondered what was such a secret that she made him swear never to tell. She eyed him for a moment longer, her baby blue optics flaring brightly behind her visor.

She seemed to believe him and began her story, "I was conceived by accident, my parents were from different factions. My mother was a neutral and my father was an Autobot. They met at a bar one night and after they talked, danced, and drank high-grade for hours, they both became very overcharged. She went with him back to his residence and, well, I think you can guess what happened there." She said, her cheeks flushing slightly.

She paused for a moment before continuing, "She found out she was with spark (1) seven solar cycles later. She told my father about it and he reacted badly, insisting that it probably wasn't even his, calling her a whore, and he told her he didn't want anything to do with me or her anymore, so whatever happened next was her problem."

Prowl frowned, not only was it not very Autobot-like to tell someone in need that it was their problem and not do a thing to help, in fact, it was just downright cruel.

She continued, "After she gave birth to me, she knew didn't have the credits to support both herself and a sparkling, so she just dropped me off at the front door of the Cyber ninja academy with Master Heron and I never heard from her again."

Prowl felt his spark tearing for the poor femme, she'd had a rough life.

She paused for a while before she went on, "Master Heron became like a surrogate father to me," she said, a touch of affection in her voice, "He took care of me, loved me, and I thrived under his care. He was the closest thing to family I'd ever known. With his guidance I soon rose to the top of my class and became skilled in many forms of circuit-su, as well as archery."

Prowl quirked an optic ridge, "Archery?" He questioned curiously. She looked at him for a moment and Prowl couldn't tell if she was annoyed at being interrupted, or if she was seeing if he was mocking her, or if asking a genuine question.

"Yes, a bow and arrow are my chosen weapons. I have a bow with energon-reinforced string and trick arrows." She noticed his slightly puzzled look and quickly added, "and by 'trick arrows' I mean they all do different things, such as, some are stasis-inducing, some explode, some have grappling hooks attached, and some are just regular arrows." She said

"Fascinating," He said processing and storing all the new information.

She said, "I completed my training two years ahead of my class and it was time for me to graduate." The corners of her lips twitched in a tiny smile, "I was immediately recruited by a member of the Elite Guard, I believe you've met him, his designation is Jazz." She said turning to Prowl.

"Oh, yes, I met him as well as Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime when they paid a visit to us." Prowl answered quickly, "He seemed like he was pretty nice and was the easiest to get along with."

Prowess sighed, "Yes, he is, and he's also very persistent. He's had an infatuation with me ever since he laid optics on me. I don't really know why and it got very annoying very fast. Although, I don't suppose I would have ever met Firefly or Silver Angel, and if I hadn't met them, I never would have had the accident that caused my…mistrust"

Prowl's interest was definitely piqued now for three reasons; one, he was jealous that Jazz had gotten to know Prowess first, two, what did the smooth mech have to do with the three femmes meeting, and three, what did Firefly and Silver Angel have to do with Prowess' mistrust? Had they somehow…caused it?

He didn't have anymore time to ponder over the meaning of her words, as she had already continued her story. "He had insisted on giving me a tour of the whole base. After much pleading on his part, I finally agreed."

She shifted slightly, "We were touring the Rec. Room when I heard two Autobots arguing. We rounded the corner and saw two mechs arguing, one was gold and the other was crimson. They were yelling at one another and everyone in the room were either leaving or trying to ignore it." She paused for a moment and Prowl could hear a faraway tone in her voice, as though she were talking on auto pilot.

_Flashback:_

_Jazz chuckled at the sight before him before turning to his companion. "Sit tight Prowess, I'm gonna call Ultra Magnus ta' come straightin' this out 'kay?" _

_Prowess watched for a moment longer before turning slowly to meet Jazz's optics and nodded silently. He smiled at her, briefly put his hand on her shoulder then ran off._

_The femme turned back to the fighting mechs and saw that the loud arguing had turned into an all-out fistfight. Her optics widened in shock as she watched the two fight and yell obscenities at one another._

"_You scratched my paint you fragger!" Yelled the gold one, "I'm gonna kill you for that!"_

"_Oh no," The crimson one said sarcastically, "I'm SOO scared Sunny."_

_The golden one, 'Sunny', growled, "You're going down bro!"_

_The crimson mech smirked, "Bring it on bro!"_

_Prowess shifted from one foot from another, unsure if she should try to intervene or something. She was gathering her courage when she heard someone snarl, "WOULD YOU TWO SLAGTARDS STOP IT ALREADY!!!!" The two fighting mechs gave shouts of surprise and fell to the floor. _

_Everyone in the room froze and Prowess turned quickly to see a small, purple and silver femme standing in the doorway. Her sapphire optics blazed with anger, her hands were positioned on her hips, and her doorwings were held high, showing her barely contained temper. Behind her stood a tall, silver femme, who stood quietly behind her companion, silently surveying the now-calm room._

_With the tips of her doorwings twitching in anger, the purple and silver one stalked over to the fighting pair. The two scrambled to their feet and backed away from her quickly as she approached. She stopped abruptly and her face twisted up as she ground out, "GET…OVER…HERE…NOW!" they instantly stopped their backpedaling and hesitantly walked over to the femme, who, even though was only about two-thirds of their sizes, seemed ten times as deadly. _

_As soon as they were in her reach, she snatched them down to her eye-level, ignoring their complaints of "Oww!" and "You're denting my face!" She smiled a smile that for some reason reminded Prowess of a Robokitty about to eat a turbo-rat. "Did you two know I could hear you all the way from the training area, where Silver Angel and I were?" The two quickly shook their heads as best they could with the vice-like grip the femme had on them. The smile only widened and she said "Well, newsflash, we could and you caused me to nearly lose the sparring match!" _

_Her grip must have tightened, because the two winced and the crimson one blurted out, "Sorry Firefly! We didn't know!" she scowled, "You better be sorry Sideswipe, and pray to Primus I'm not the one who comes to stop you next time, because then…" She released their faces and they fell to the floor with a light smack, "I might not be as forgiving about it."_

"_Wow," Prowess murmured to herself. _

"_That's one way to put it," Prowess turned to find herself looking at who she guessed was Silver Angel. "Although unbelievable would be more accurate." The tall femme was looking at her and giving her a friendly smile._

"_I'm going to guess you're Silver Angel and, she's Firefly" Prowess said._

"_And you guessed right." She said, her smile widening a little bit._

"_Who guessed what right?" Asked a voice behind Prowess, the femme flinched a slightly when she realized that Firefly was behind her and looking at her and Silver Angel questioningly. The fury was gone from her sapphire eyes and all that was left was curiosity._

"_Oh, hey Fire." Silver Angel said, glancing briefly at the other femme, "This is Prowess and I meant she was correct in her assumptions of our identities."_

"_Oh," The small purple and silver femme said before smiling brightly at Prowess and putting out her hand. "Hi!" _

_Prowess shot a bewildered look at Silver Angel, surprised at Firefly's sudden change in attitude. The femme gave her a bemused smile and mouthed, "She moves on quickly."_

_Prowess mouthed back "No kidding." Before taking Firefly's outstretched hand and shaking it. "Nice to meet you," She said._

_Firefly smiled even bigger, if that were possible, and said, "You too Prowess," Her optics lit up and she said excitedly, "You want to come hang out with me and Angel in the training room then later we can give you a tour or something?" _

_Prowess paused for a moment, glancing at Angel, who nodded in agreement. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt anything." She answered, feeling a flutter of excitement at having made new friends, then the feeling was squashed when Jazz walked back in with a couple of bots she didn't know. Jazz had already offered to give her a tour, how was she going to tell him she wanted Firefly and Silver Angel to show her around instead?_

_Jazz looked around confusedly at the now calm scene, most likely looking for the fighting twins. She couldn't help but cringe slightly when his gaze settled on her and his optics lighted up. He jogged over to them and asked, "Weren't Sunny and Sides' jus' in here 'bout ta tear each other apart? He asked tearing his gaze away from Prowess and looking at the other two femmes. _

_Firefly straightened her back and puffed out her chest, "They were, but I straightened them out!" The purple femme answered proudly._

_Jazz smiled at her and patted her helm, "Thanks lil' Fire." He turned to Prowess and said, "Ready ta see th' rest of tha base?" Prowess cringed slightly, something about the way Jazz looked at her made her uneasy. She knew he would never hurt her, but she just couldn't relax around him. _

_She was about to answer when Firefly tossed an arm around her fellow femme's shoulders and said, "Oh don't worry about it, Jazz! We can show her around the base! Besides, you probably have a ton of work to get back to."_

_Prowess nodded quickly in agreement and added, "Yes, I hate to keep you from your work any longer. I'll just let Firefly and Silver Angel show me around the rest of the base if that's ok with you." _

_The femmes nodded in agreement and Prowess tried to ignore the hurt she saw very briefly on Jazz's faceplates before he forced a smile, "Ok, uh, sure, tha' sounds good, I do have los' of work I need ta get done. Have a nice day ladies." He said before walking slowly away._

_She felt a small pang of regret, she hadn't meant to hurt him, but the feeling disappeared when Firefly grabbed her arm and began to pull her toward the door. "C'mon! There's a lot of the base left to see!" She said excitedly, only allowing Prowess a quick glance at the rejected looking Jazz, with his head hanging and sluggishly dragging feet._

_End Flashback_

Prowl listened as she told the story of how she met Jazz, Firefly, and Silver Angel. When she finished, he was bit ashamed to feel a pang of satisfaction at the fact that she didn't have feelings for Jazz, but, what chance did he have of her liking him if she didn't like someone like Jazz?

He squashed the thought and the feelings of sadness that came with it and asked, "What does meeting Firefly and Silver Angel have to do with the accident that caused your mistrust of mechs?"

She gave him a slightly annoyed glance and said, "I was getting to that."

Prowl bowed his head slightly and apologized for interrupting. She turned to him, smiling ever so slightly, "it's alright."

She wrinkled her noseplates a little and muttered, "Now where was I? Oh, I remember now," She said, straightening up. "Sometime after Firefly and Silver Angel made it into the Elite Guard, Firefly became interested in….um, clubbing." She said ducking her head slightly in embarrassment when Prowl gave her a doubtful look.

"Yes, I'm very serious, I know she should have never been able to get in there in the first place, but Angel knew the owners and the two were allowed in." She continued, "Even though I always refused to come, they always asked me if I wanted to join them." The femme shook her head smiling, "I was always afraid they would get caught, but, somehow, they always seemed to come back right before they were missed."

"Anyway, one Cycle, for Angel's creation date, I finally agreed to come," She scowled, "little did I know it would be the biggest mistake of my Life Cycle."

_Flashback:_

_Firefly bounced happily on Prowess's right side, "I'm so glad you finally decided to come with us! You'll have the time of your Life Cycle at this place!"_

_Prowess smirked at her overly excited friend and said, "I hope so, or all of this polishing you insisted on doing to me will go to waste." She turned the other way to face Silver Angel and said, "Now HOW exactly do you know the club owner?"_

_Silver Angel paused, rubbing her lower lip with her fingertip while she thought, "Oh! Now I remember! He buys lots of supplies from one of my Father's supply companies." She said. _

_Prowess rolled her optics, "I guessed as much." Firefly and Angel halted all of a sudden and stared ahead. Confused, Prowess looked at her two companions, who were grinning back at her._

"_What?" She asked, raising a hidden optic ridge under her visor._

_Firefly's grin widened and she sang "We're here!"_

_Pausing to look around, Prowess turned back to her younger friend, "Have you blown a circuit? This is a bare alley; there aren't any doors or signs anywhere!" She said, her voice carrying a tiny hint of impatience._

"_Well, to just anyone, this IS a bare alley, but to those with connections like me, it is more." Silver Angel said in her smooth, velvety voice. _

_Prowess mentally kicked herself for forgetting that Angel was an upper class femme, born and raised, although she made it pretty easy to forget, since she didn't have the snobby, I'm-better-than-you attitude most upper class members had. Prowess found it both interesting and amusing that her great wealth had very little effect on her nearly non-existent ego, unlike some of her sisters. _

_She watched as Silver Angel reached into her subspace and pulled out a silvery-blue key. She walked over to the wall on her right and pushed in one of the metal panels. As it was pushed in, another panel slid open with a small 'swoosh', revealing a small keyhole. Angel inserted the key in and twisted it to the right. A three-toned beep sounded and an entire section of the wall slid to the side and to Prowess's amazement, it was the entrance to the dance club._

_"Wow," Prowess mused, "They go to great lengths to make sure the club remains secret."_

_Re-subspacing the key, Silver Angel smirked, "You don't know the half of it."_

_Prowess gave the other a slightly mystified look as the tall silver femme and the shorter purple femme brushed past her and entered the club._

_Prowess shuttered her optics in surprise as she entered the dance club. Music was blasting from huge speakers set up in the corners and multicolored strobe lights flashed. Mechs and femmes were dancing to the upbeat tunes and laughing drunkenly._

_A sickeningly sweet scent wafted into her olfactory sensor and she wrinkled up her faceplates in disgust. "Ugh, what IS that smell?!" She exclaimed, holding a dainty hand over her nose._

_Firefly quirked an optic ridge, "High-grade," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe, "Haven't you ever smelled it before?"_

_Prowess rolled her optics under her visor, "Well yes, but it doesn't usually smell like that!"_

_Silver Angel put her hand on her friend's shoulder, "That's because it's got something in it that gives it an extra 'bang', according to Sideswipe." She said_

"_Frag," Firefly snorted, "he probably even knows what the stuff is and where you can get it!"_

_Silver Angel smirked, "Most likely," Her expression turned serious and she turned to Prowess, "but all joking aside Prowess, whatever you do, DON'T drink anything brought to you unless Firefly or I give it to you, understand?"_

_Prowess frowned, "That's common sense Angel, I'm not stupid." She pointed out._

_Silver Angel smiled slightly, although her expression remained stern, "I very well know that, I am just reminding you."_

_Firefly sighed impatiently from Prowess' other side, "Okay, okay, we have the most important stuff out of the way…NOW LET'S GO HAVE SOME SLAGGIN' FUN!" She exclaimed_

_Silver Angel chuckled, "Okay Fire' you lead the way."_

**(1) Cybertronian word for pregnant**

**Oh noes, there is no way this could possibly end well…**

**Also, PLEASE review BEFORE you FAVE!!! That's all I have for now…**

**3 Firefly95**


	6. FireflyBumblebee interlude

**Okay guys, here's the low down, I'm not sure how I want to write the 'bad stuff' that happens to Prowess at the club and I need some help, so if you have some kind of input, review and tell me. I would be SOOOOOOOO grateful for it!**

**However, I really needed to update this, so I'm going to put in a small Firefly/Bumblebee interlude, just to carry on the story.**

**Warnings:**** none**

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Transformers Animated, just Firefly, Silver Angel, and Prowess.**

**--------------------------------------------------**

"Prooooowwwweeesss," Firefly yelled, parting two bushes with her hands and looking between them, "ugh, where is she?"

"Slag if I know," Bumblebee muttered to himself then asked the femme impatiently, "are you _sure _she left the base?" Bumblebee asked, slightly impatient.

"Duh, I already said that." Firefly answered, rolling her sapphire-colored optics as if it were the dumbest question in the universe.

"Hey, I was just asking a question, no need to get snappy!" The yellow mech exclaimed

"Well, I wouldn't have to get snappy if you would stop asking stupid questions!" The purple femme snapped

"Oh, so my questions are stupid?" He asked, his blue optics narrowing

"Yes they are, just like you." She remarked snidely and turned to glare at Bumblebee.

After a short stare down, the two simultaneously burst into laughter, gripping one another for support.

When they managed to calm down, Bumblebee straightened up and said with a small smile on his face, "I like you."

Firefly smiled back and said, "I like you too."

**--------------------------------------------------**

**Like I said, just a small interlude to satisfy all you guys that are starting to get impatient with me XP.**

**Oh, I almost forgot! Sometime back I posted a poll on my profile concerning which of my three OC's the readers of my stories like best, it's still up, and probably will be until I finish ****Love, Maybe**** whenever that will be, lol, and so far, these are the results:**

**Prowess: //////**

**Firefly: ////**

**Silver Angel: /**

**If your fave character isn't winning right now, go help change that by voting for them!**


	7. Author needs help!

Nope, not an update, but I need you readers' help! I need up to 5 OC names for male Cyber ninjas, but before you go submitting names, you need to know they are going to be the names of mechs that are beating up Prowess.

These are the names I have so far that I am going to use:

Barricade (yes, cannon character)

Cyclone (my OC)

SwiftStorm (an OC that belongs to a friend on DeviantArt, CaramelDatsun)

Turbine (belongs to CaramelDatsun also)

I need one more name, so if you would please help me out, I'd appreciate it SOOO much!

With bunches of Love,

~Firefly95


	8. Listen to Me, part 2

**I actually forgot about this for a while, I was writing another story that I'm going to put on here when it's FINISHED so updating will be faster and easier.**

**As a present for you guys, I threw in Blaster! Barricade's also in here, but I'm not as excited about him.**

**Also, this is told as present tense, even though it is still a flashback; this just made writing it a lot easier for me. Just pointing that out to avoid confusion.**

**Warnings:**** Violence and I mentioned Kickback's bisexuality. This is where the T rating comes in.**

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Transformers Animated, just Firefly, Prowess, Silver Angel, Playback, Fallout, Cyclone, and Firefly's brother Darkstar, who is mentioned.**

**Now to give credit to those who helped me out:**

**SwiftStorm (an OC that belongs to a friend on DeviantArt, CaramelDatsun)**

**Turbine (belongs to CaramelDatsun also)**

**Eclipse (belongs to Ice Around the Moon)**

---------------------------------------------------------------

Listen to Me! Pt. 2

Prowess followed Firefly and Silver Angel to a large table in the corner of the dance club. Seated at the booth were three 'bots, one was a red and black tape deck, seated next to him was a black and electric blue femme of similar design, and on the mech's other side was another femme, this one black and white.

Firefly smiled and waved at the three 'bots and yelled over the music, "Hey! Blaster, Playback, Fallout!"

The three looked up and the red and black mech gave them a lopsided grin, "Hey ladies, who's ya friend?" He asked nodding in Prowess' direction.

"This is Prowess Blaster," she said, "You know, our friend we were telling you about."

The mech's grin widened and he asked, "Tha one that never has any fun? How'd ya get 'er in 'ere?"

Prowess gave the mech an irritated look and said, "I came because it's Angel's creation date and she wanted me to celebrate it with her and Firefly."

The mech held up his hands and chuckled, "Ey now, put away tha claws, I was jus' askin' a question."

Prowess rolled her optics and turned her head to look at Firefly, "And you met him _where_?" She asked, raising her optic ridge behind her visor.

"Weeeell, actually," Firefly began, scratching the back of her helm "I've known Blaster and his sister Playback ever since I was a sparkling, they're some of my older brother's best friends. Fallout I met a while after she and Blaster started dating."

The electric blue and black femme that Prowess assumed was Playback chuckled and said, "yeah, we've known Flames since she was a lil' ankle biter." She nudged her brother and said, "You 'member righ' after she got upgraded inta a younglin' she was all excited about her speed bumps (1)?"

Blaster and laughed and Firefly blushed hotly and exclaimed, "OH like I'm the _only_ one who gets excited about that when they get upgraded!"

"No," Playback began, snickering "but you are the only one who runs around showing them to everyone yelling, "I've got a chassis now! I've got a chassis now!" everyone began laughing at Firefly's expense, even Prowess.

Meanwhile, at a table across the room, six mechs sat at a table watching the group.

"Man Barricade, this is boring! Can't we just go?" A white and silver mech complained

"It's time the half-breed learned her place." Barricade growled and glanced briefly at the white and silver mech, "And I suggest you shut your mouth before I teach you yours."

Cyclone scowled and looked away while Turbine and Swiftstorm shared a smirk, and Eclipse grunted noncommittally. Kickback wasn't even listening; he was leering at some dancing mech.

While black and white watched the small femme, waiting for her to go off alone, he remembered a time, long since passed, when he and the femme were students at Master Heron's dojo.

**---------------------------------------------------------------**

_Flashback_

**---------------------------------------------------------------**

_Barricade delivered a spinning kick to his opponent's side, causing the mech to cry out in pain and fall to the padded floor. While the mech was down, the black and white quickly flipped him on his belly and pinned his arms behind his back._

_"Well done, Barricade," an aged voice said, and Barricade turned to look at his silver and black sensei._

_Bowing, he started to answer, but was cut off._

_"But," the old mech began, "I saw at least six moments where a vital system was exposed to your opponent and, had he been more skilled, he could have easily exploited those moments and taken you down."_

_Even though Barricade was seething on the inside from Heron's criticism, he still bowed respectfully and replied, "Yes Master, I shall work on not exposing myself Master."_

_His sensei nodded and said, "Now, I think it's time you sparred with an opponent of your own caliber." With that, he motioned to a shadow and a previously unnoticed slim figure stepped gracefully out into the light, revealing its identity and causing Barricade to scowl in disgust._

_Prowess walked fluidly over to stand next to Master Heron, and nodded at Barricade, who curled his lip in contempt._

_"I hardly think _she_ is 'of my own caliber', Slag, she's not even a full Autobot!" Barricade said condescendingly_

_Master Heron's expression darkened slightly, "It is not who one is born as, but who one chooses to be that makes one who they are, Barricade, and Prowess has more than proven herself both to be a loyal Autobot and a great Cyber ninja." His sensei paused, narrowing his optics at his student, "And it's that kind of closed-minded attitude that you exhibit toward Prowess that will hinder your progress as a Cyber ninja."_

_Barricade said nothing, although Prowess could tell by the way he glowered at both her and her Master that he was downright livid at basically being told that a Neutral-Autobot femme was better than him._

_"Now that we've addressed that problem, Prowess," He turned to the small femme at his side, "I would like you to spar with Barricade and compare your skills to his."_

_Prowess bowed gracefully and answered, "Yes Master,"_

_Barricade glared at the femme out of the corner of his optics and bowed as well, but it seemed very stiff and forced._

_The two young ninjas straightened and walked onto the sparring mat, taking their positions on either side._

_One and a half cycles later:_

_Prowess stood next to the Barricade, who was once again face-down on the floor, groaning in pain. He rolled over on his back and, with some difficulty, stood back up and got in a battle stance._

"_Will you just give up already?" An exasperated Prowess exclaimed, "I've pinned you at least six times."_

_The black and white shook his helm shakily and said, "I re-refuse to surrender to a s-slaggin' half-breed." _

_Sighing and shaking her helm, Prowess quickly spun down into a crouch and thrust her leg out, easily knocking the other Cyber ninja off his feet and sending him crashing to the padded floor._

_While he was stunned, Prowess turned and walked out of the sparring room, leaving Barricade lying on the floor. _

_He sat up and watched her leave, pure hate boiling through his circuits._

**---------------------------------------------------------------**

_Flashback_

**---------------------------------------------------------------**

Barricade's fist tightened as he remembered the humiliation he had felt at being beaten in a fight by the little Neutral-Autobot femme.

_"But,"_ Barricade smirked, _"There's no way she can beat me now, I've become stronger and that old coot Heron can't protect her." _He cast a glance back at his friends, all mechs that had been kicked out of the Autobot faction for what they believed, with the exception of Kickback, who had never been an Autobot to begin with.

Oh yes, that femme was going to pay for getting him kicked out of Master Heron's Cyber Ninja Academy, Barricade would make sure of that.

**---------------------------------------------------------------**

**(1) uh, boobs.**

**Wow, Barricade is really creeping me out in this…**

**Please, Please, PLEASE people give me some kind of feedback! I don't care if you're saying you liked it, hated it, or have criticism, just something.**


End file.
